The End.

Dec 18, 2014- one for the books! The day we closed the book on adoption #2!

Apparently our agency is different then most because our social worker said with all other adoptions that are finalized after placement, the judge meets with the lawyer in his/her chambers and the parents don't need to be present. For ours, they required that John, I and our social worker all be present in one place together and talk with the judge over the phone. The date was set for Dec. 18 at 11:30 our time (9:30 their time).

Our social worker works at RUH so this morning we met her over there, got some coffee and sat down and waited for the phone to ring. And waited. And waited. I was told to expect a small delay but after a half hour I was starting to feel a bit panicky. Finally the phone rang, but it was our agency. She said that we were the 17th case that morning and the judge was running way behind (apparently she is a bit long-winded!) She said to expect up to an hour of delays. So we went and got lunch and wandered around the new health sciences building. Thankfully our social worker had a slow day and had no problem waiting around with us (amazing lady, she is!)

Finally, at 1:20, the phone rang from Las Vegas. The call took about 10 minutes in total and it was actually really fun! They made us all raise our right hand and swore us in over the phone. I held my hand over my mouth so they wouldn't hear me giggling. How could they really tell if we were actually raising our hands? We all stated our full names and then the judge talked to John and I for a bit and then Michelle, asking her if she recommended the adoption going through. Then, those beautiful, beautiful words- "It is in the best interest of the child to be adopted by John and Mandi Letkeman," (or something like that, I don't remember exactly). There were rounds of congratulations and Merry Christmas and then they hung up and that was it! It all felt so surreal and I giggled some more and Michelle hugged us and then we all went our separate ways, John and Michelle back to work and I drove to my parents, picked up my baby and officially welcomed her to the family with lots of kisses.

The End.